Bulldog mentality: Low numbers don’t deter Beth-Center boys soccer
In their opening match of the season on Saturday, the Beth-Center boys soccer team had only 11 players and were down to 10 after an injury.
But they still led Class 3A Albert Gallatin by a goal until the final 20 minutes when the Colonials scored three times to take a 4-2 victory.
The game showed that the Bulldogs have quality – even if they don’t have quantity.
The roster sits at 13 players, so low numbers are an obstacle that the Bulldogs will have to overcome this season.
They appear to be up for the challenge.
Beth-Center beat California 16-1 in each team’s Class A Section 2 opener Tuesday night. Parker Amos had seven goals, Ryder Roule, Trent Roule and Kaleb Amos added a hat trick apiece.
Kaleb Amos is the team’s goalie, but got some time as an outfield player in the rout of California.
That result and taking Albert Gallatin to the wire with 10 players have the Bulldogs feeling confident they can make the playoffs for a fourth straight year.
“We had someone get hurt in the first 12 minutes, so we had to play the rest of the game with 10”, Bulldogs coach Gary Amos said about the Albert Gallatin game. “That was difficult with the heat on the turf on Saturday. We were winning 2-1 with about 16 minutes left and then it kind of fell apart from there.”
Amos is a Beth-Center grad. He played goalie for the Bulldogs before going on to play at Slippery Rock.
After coaching at Bentworth for 17 years, Amos made the switch to Beth-Center four years ago in part to be able to coach his two sons Parker, a senior striker and Kaleb, a sophomore goalie.
It’s been a thrill to get to mentor both of his sons as well as the other Beth-Center players.
“Parker is a striker and he’s always been very coachable and very mature,” Coach Amos said. “He’s been a four-year starter and captain for us and All-WPIAL his first three years. I knew we were going to need a goalie last year, so that’s really how Kaleb became a goalie. That’s the position I played growing up, so I figured I had that background, so felt like I could help him become one. He’s really taken off from there and got really good at it.
“They’ll come out to the school and Parker will shoot on Kaleb. In that way it’s worked out really well. They both can work on what they need to at the same time.”
Beth-Center finished second in the Class A Section 2 standings behind eventual state champion Bentworth.
The Bulldogs fell to Eden Christian in penalties in the first-round last year and with it came a major roster change.
Nine players graduated and at a small school like Beth-Center, sometimes there aren’t a ton or reinforcements coming up to make up the difference.
That was the case, which is why there’s only 13 players on the team.
“We had been around 20 kids the last three years that I’ve been here, after losing nine seniors, we had one kid decide he wanted to play football and another move to Brownsville, and we only had three freshman players join us,” Coach Amos said.
With a small roster, Amos has had to get creative with practices. Obviously with 13 players, the team can’t do full formation drills against each other, so they’ve broken it down to much smaller situations. A lot of 5-on-5 and 3-on-3 drills.
Another major focus has been conditioning since there won’t be too many opportunities for substitution breaks.
“Getting everybody in shape was a big focus for us, because they’re going to have to play pretty much the entire game,” Coach Amos said. “There really aren’t any breaks. We told them if they need a break to come over and get a drink real quick, because they can’t come off the field. That’s made things a little more difficult.”
Beth-Center’s section grew in size from six to eight teams, but Bentworth remains as the favorite. Bishop Canevin, Brentwood, California, Carlynton, Chartiers-Houston and Serra Catholic are the other teams in the section.
The Bulldogs are confident that if they stay healthy, then they can have another successful season.
“We have good leadership and a nice core,” Coach Amos said. “I believe we can win our share of games this year and get back into the playoffs again.”